When Denmark Criminalised Kindness

When a Danish social activist gets fined for driving and feeding a few Syrian refugees, she questions the climate of fear that’s arisen in her native Denmark, and what she sees as a fundamental change in the her culture’s values: the desire to help other human beings.

Source: Granta
Published: Dec 7, 2016
Length: 13 minutes (3,438 words)

Why Vitamin Pills Don’t Work, and May Be Bad for You

Are you taking your vitamins? You might reconsider that.

Author: Alex Riley
Source: BBC
Published: Dec 8, 2016
Length: 9 minutes (2,388 words)

Longreads Best of 2016: Essays & Criticism

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in essays and criticism.

Author: Editors
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 14, 2016

Every Year The Tree

Melissa Chadburn’s moving recollection of the Christmas trees of her difficult youth—from the ones she lifted from a grocery warehouse near the home for girls she lived in, to the ones she’d cart home from Home Depot in her twenties, to the one she picked out with her partner, at 33.

Source: Lenny
Published: Dec 14, 2016
Length: 7 minutes (1,984 words)

Behind the Scenes of Children’s Television: A Reading List

Children’s television programming is always colorful, sometimes educational, and often bizarre. A human-sized hamster wheel? A talking chair? Grown men going to bat for a herd of rainbow-colored ponies? These stories explore the art and economics of making television for kids.

Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 13, 2016

Chongqing’s Number One Noodle Obsessive

In Sichuan’s spicy-noodle capital, a local xiaomian aficionado takes a visitor on a quest for the ultimate bowl.

Published: Nov 21, 2016
Length: 12 minutes (3,028 words)

Longreads Best of 2016: Under-Recognized Books

We asked our contributors to tell us about a few books they felt deserved more recognition in 2016. Here they are.

Author: Editors
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 13, 2016

My President Was Black

A history of the first African American White House, as Coates examines Obama’s successes and failures — and what came next.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Dec 13, 2016
Length: 67 minutes (16,875 words)

The End: What Really Happens After You Die?

Explore all your post-death options in a macabre but fascinating (and strangely jaunty) essay that reveals all the post-death details you wanted to know — and some that you probably didn’t.

Published: Sep 16, 2016
Length: 32 minutes (8,196 words)

Searching for Lake Minnetonka and Solid Ground Post-Prince

“I’ve lost family members, and I’ve watched the people closest to me grapple with the deepest, darkest depths of loss. But this was something different; it was massive, but also oddly intimate.”

Published: Dec 7, 2016
Length: 9 minutes (2,380 words)